The United States Dept. of Defense is awarding $14.5 million to UCSB through several grants over the next five years.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research allotted more than 7 percent of the Multicampus University Research Initiative Program’s $191 million total funding to several research projects on campus. The university is one of 27 campuses nationwide to receive financial support from the department’s MURI.

Electrical and computer engineering professor Kwang-Ting Cheng will oversee a $7 million grant from the department for his team to build new compact three-dimensional computer chips using nano-memristor technology. Cheng’s team will collaborate with researchers from Stony Brook University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and California Institute of Technology.

The second award of $7.5 million will support computer chip research focusing on quantum mechanical effects in diamonds. Director of UCSB’s Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation David Awschalom, a physics and electrical and computer engineering professor, will supervise the program. The university will work alongside researchers from the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

According to a press release, Vice Chancellor for Research Michael Witherell said the award reflects the groups’ success as the best in their respective fields of the highly competitive national program.

 

—Staff Report

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